Early on in the legal skirmishes that have come to define this presidential election, a Republican official asked, incredulously, “Are we going to decide this election by law alone?” Many people think it’s disgusting that the next president may be decided, in part, by the court system. By law alone is an interesting concept. Americans are given the right to vote by law, the Constitution. Their right to vote can be taken away by the courts, if they are convicted of a felony or refused immigration.

Americans love the law when it’s used to keep criminals off the streets, but they don’t like it poking its head into their business — or the presidency.

Courts in this country were established to keep people in line. In this election, they’re being used to sort through the tangled mess of allegations from both sides. There are thousands of votes in Florida that haven’t been counted. However, maybe they shouldn’t be counted, if they are not legal votes for the president.

Democrats will tell you these ballots should be added to the Florida total, while Republicans think the numbers are fine without any more addition of votes. Somebody must cut through the partisan spin and look at the real issues here. How should America decide who will be our next president in this highly contested election, if not by law?

Courts are the referees in the world of politics. While judges may be Democrats or Republicans and may even have contributed to Al Gore or George W. Bush’s campaigns, they have a higher duty to respect the law. Jurists set aside their personal preferences when they throw on their black robes. Judges have ruled against their own parties many times in past few weeks.

Palm Beach County residents have said the “butterfly ballot,” which confused many of them to vote for Pat Buchanan, is illegal. Others have said it is not. Someone has to step in, take a good look at the law, and decide whether it is in fact an illegal ballot that unfairly robbed Palm Beach residents of their rights. Courts ruled that the ballot is legal, as laws Democrats site to show its illegality apply only to non-mechanical ballots.

On the other hand, the Florida Supreme Court ruled the deadline for submitting county vote totals should be extended a week since the law allows for hand counts, and thus there must be time to complete them. But the court, which has six Democratic members and one independent, later ruled against Gore, saying the deadline shouldn’t be extended further when Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties were taking too long to count their ballots.

Without the court system, Floridians would have dozens of different vote totals with no arbitrator to say which is the fairest one. Currently, there are over 40 lawsuits challenging different aspects of the election. Someone needs to sort them. The national popular vote total came to 48 percent for Gore, 48 percent for Bush, with Gore winning a slim plurality. The vote in Florida is 49 percent to 49 percent, with Bush ahead by 537 votes out of more than 6 million. Neither candidate won the majority of the vote in Iowa and seven other states. The election came down to a tie.

Take Florida and total all the votes that could be lost or gained in situations both sides are alleging gave them lowered totals. Add every hanging, swinging and tri chad. Add the dimpled chad that was really for a candidate. Add the votes from Palm Beach that were meant for Gore but went to Buchanan. Add the ballots in that county where the elderly punched out two holes thinking they were voting for both Gore and running mate Joseph Lieberman. Subtract the votes where Republicans tampered with absentee ballot application forms in Seminole and Martin counties.

Now add the military ballots thrown out because of missing signatures or postmarks. Add the would-be votes from the Florida panhandle, where the polls closed 10 minutes after television stations reported Gore the Florida victor. Subtract the couple dozen felons who voted, most of them for Gore.

What do you end up with? A tie. Gore and Bush both feel, deep in their heart of hearts, that they have won this election. No one can tell them differently, and whoever ends up losing will believe he was robbed of the presidency. But America will need a new president in January. The courts, ruling on the legality of all the disputed issues, will end up deciding who it will be — by the law. And, in an election marred by unfairness to both sides, that is the fairest thing of all.